Earwax, also known by the medical term cerumen, is a yellowish waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and other mammals. It protects the skin of the human ear canal, assists in cleaning and lubrication, and also provides some protection from bacteria, fungi, insects, and water.
Earwax is good for the overall health of the ear, a fact to which practically every doctor will attest. However, nobody seems to care about what doctors think when it comes to earwax and earwax build-up. Almost everybody cleans their ears for aesthetic reasons, even at the price of going against their doctor's advice, and most people have absolutely no desire to change this personal grooming preference. There are generally no products on the market that are designed specifically to clean earwax from the ear canal. As a result, people will stick almost anything in their ears to get the wax out. The tool of choice for most people is the common cotton swab, which turns out to be a very dangerous tool for inserting into the ear canal to clean out earwax. Cotton swabs can push earwax deeper into the ear canal, thereby causing further wax buildup, pain, itching, a risk of infection, and hearing loss. Another reason why a person shouldn't remove the wax with a cotton swab in particular is that at the end of the ear canal is the eardrum, and the eardrum is much closer to the outside than most people think. A cotton swab pushed too far into the ear canal can easily damage the eardrum, sometimes resulting in permanent hearing loss. For these reasons, a more useful and appealing alternative to a cotton swab is needed.